West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away 10,000 years ago: study

www.spacedaily.com ^ | 01-06-2003 | not given

[boris]

LINK

West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away 10,000 years ago: study

WASHINGTON (AFP) Jan 04, 2003

The West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away some 10,000 years ago and should continue to shrink, according to a study released Friday.

A team of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that rock fragments were left behind by glaciers that disappeared over 10,000 years ago, according to the study out Friday in the latest issue of Science.

"This work establishes a background pattern of steady decline in the West Antarctic ice sheet," said John Stone, an associate professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington.

According to Stone, the 360,000 square miles (932,000 square km) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, would completely melt away in another 7,000 years if the current rate of melting holds.

But "a rapid melting event that released even a small fraction of this amount could have disastrous consequences for coastal regions," Stone said.

The ice sheet, about the size of France and Italy combined, contains enough water to raise global sea levels by about five percent, the study said.

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[MarkT]

Damn Global Warming - must have been an early version of the SUV.

[sheik yerbouty]

This is really hot sheet.

[Puddleglum]

Mammoth flatulence

[HonorInPa]

The word is antarCtic.

[pabianice]

... but it's still the fault of SUVs...

[Gary Boldwater]

This was obviously initiated by the use of the SUV of the day for Neolithic man - the horse. As time went on, more and more neoliths used horses which ate more grass, which farted more and so on.

[Jaxter]

Wow! That is interesting. I didn't even know there were Republicans 10000 years ago...

[jpl]

Don't look for the major so-called mainstream news sources to report this embarrassing little tidbit.

[aruanan]

It's amazing how many people don't realize that the antarctic is the antipodal arctic.

[boris]

Yeah, but go to the link and look at their original headline.

[small voice in the wilderness]

Fred Flintstone's car. And The Quarry. And Wilma's vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, and hairdryer.

The bast*rds.

[OldFriend]

Barbra Streisand was there!

[Grampa Dave]

This was due to our evil ancestors driving around those huge live four wheeled Mammoth SUV's when they could have just walked around.

They had to feed the Mammoths high octane and flatus producing moss and grasses. This increased the gas passing of the Mammoths and triggered this terrible beginning of global warming.

[RightWhale]

the antarctic is the antipodal arctic

Does that mean there are no bears down there?

[PogySailor]

West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away some 10,000 years ago...

All because the evil Bush won't sign the Kyoto treaty.

[aruanan]

Does that mean there are no bears down there?

No, though there are no bears down there.

[11th Earl of Mar]

... because of Moses and his gas guzzling H2?

[RightWhale]

Once there was a forest full of bears.
I bought the forest for the bears.
I cut the forest to get the bears.
Then I had neither forest, nor bears.

[aruanan]

Then I had neither forest, nor bears.

Yes, but you probably had a lot of nice new houses with wood-burning fireplaces and a bearskin rug in front of each one.